Flyway

Flyway, route used regularly by migrating birds, bats, or butterflies. The large majority of such migrants move from northern breeding grounds to southern wintering grounds and back, and most of the well-used flyways follow north-south river valleys (e.g., the Mississippi River valley), coastlines (especially those of North America and East Asia), or mountain ranges. A flyway may be only a few hundred metres wide at certain points, such as mountain passes and the crossing points of water bodies; in other places it may be hundreds of kilometres wide. In one notable flyway, hundreds of thousands of storks and large birds of prey from eastern Europe cross the Bosporus in a narrow stream, spread out over Turkey and around the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, then bunch together again to cross the north end of the Suez Canal into Africa.

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any of about 20 species of long-necked large birds constituting the family Ciconiidae (order Ciconiiformes), related to the herons, flamingos, and ibises. Storks range from about 60 cm to more than 150 cm (2 to 5 feet) in height. All or part of the head and upper neck may be bare of feathers and...

The Japanese archipelago constitutes a major East Asian flyway, and some 600 bird species are either resident or transitory. Water birds are abundant and include gulls, auks, grebes, albatrosses, shearwaters, herons, ducks, geese, swans, and cranes. The cormorant is sometimes trained to catch fish. There are about 150 species of songbirds, as well as eagles, hawks, falcons, pheasant, ptarmigan,...